by D. D. Miers
I jumped, pulling myself clear of death and beyond the momentary reach of his sword. Avoiding the potential of his armor to ruin my attack, I aimed for the back of his knee. I sliced hard, nicking flesh and tendon right down to the bone against which my dulling blade sank.
The beast of a man crashed to the ground, his armor singing out like a broken wind chime. Blinded by rage and pushed by a fear that was growing distant from the sight of death, I finished the man off with a swift bash to the back of his neck. In an instant, his cries stopped, and a silence punctuated only by Aedan’s continued fight fell over me.
When had they become the warriors, and I the beast?
In a slow turn, I looked to Aedan, seeing, but barely understanding, the danger he was in. I felt numb, and it was only as I saw the shape of his lips curling around my name in desperation that I somehow woke up to the world that raged on without me.
“Sloane!”
I ran toward him, my entrance to his fight a surprise that felled his attacker with ease. Blood caked Aedan’s arms, though I was uncertain if it was his or someone else’s.
“Come on, we’ve got to go.” He grabbed my arm, and we ran from the bloodied street in which so many of the city had begun to gather. They gawked and pointed, mothers screaming out in terror as they shoved their children back indoors.
We stepped onto lush grass and into the forest’s shadows looming in the distance. It may have held beasts and creatures of nightmares, but it looked far more inviting than ever before.
We ran across the meadow, our breath heaving and our feet pounding in the exhilaration of potential escape—until we both came to a screeching halt.
Caitrín stood directly in our path, her flowing blonde locks making the woman appear soft and innocent as she stared us down with near twenty men at her flanks.
“Caitrín, don’t do this!” I again checked the tightness of my pack’s straps, fear flooding me until I was certain the runes remained in my possession. “Killion would never have wanted this!”
Laughter, strangled and warped, fell from her lips. Toward the horizon beyond the meadow’s lush spread, she smiled. “You’re too late.”
27
The world around us plunged into shadows as if the sun that still held high in the sky was not there at all. The forests creaked and moaned with upset, as mighty trees collapsed in thunderous agony. The world was shifting and changing, swift as the stiff breeze that pushed my hair into my eyes.
“What have you done?” I cried as booming groans of beasts in the forests deep cried out in hunger.
For the first time, Caitrín seemed to be lost within herself, taken over by the same shadows she had sought to release. “She has awakened.”
Her finger jutted outward, herding me into a spin that put the spineless woman at my back. What now stood before me was more terrifying than her soulless stare.
From the same gate we’d escaped, a woman walked, her light steps ethereal, yet in stark opposition to the blackness in her eyes. There was nothing left of the Fae who spoke of heart or soul, and the whipping winds seemed to seek her out as her hands lifted toward the sky. A crescendo of voices, muddled and hellish, mirrored her actions and left me accepting the hold of Aedan’s hand when it found mine.
Finally, I believed I knew what hell truly was, and it had arrived.
“She is the daughter of darkness.” Caitrín’s voice barely rose above the howling wind and monstrous snarls from the forest beyond. “And with her, the dead rise.”
My heart sank into the pit of my stomach as figure after figure followed the raven-haired woman into the field. Their eyes were black as the night, and their steps cloddish as they followed her whims like a brainless lot. They were much like the group of soulless savages we’d fought on the outskirts of the City of Shadows, except their flesh had yet to rot, and their eyes had lost all sense of color.
“Aedan…” Unthinking, I stepped backward, wanting to distance myself from those that trudged slowly toward us. “Are those—”
“The dead from the crypt?”
I swallowed hard as Caitrín cackled behind us. “I’m so glad you could be of help in bringing me the runes. Your brother would be so proud.”
A dark flood of anger had me spinning, while Aedan’s grip on my hand was tossed aside in an instant. “I will end you,” I snarled as my palm wrapped in a death curl around the hilt of my stolen sword.
“Sloane.” Aedan’s voice was a low warning that left me frozen in place. “Not now. The forests…run!”
In a mad dash, he yanked me along, the flank of men behind Caitrín careening toward us with all efforts to kill. I wished more than anything I had my crossbow then, as I yanked Aedan low beneath a sailing arrow. It slammed into the meaty flesh of one of the savages, leaving me to wonder just how many of them we could get to kill one another. Perhaps their darkness and their hatred had no bounds.
Together, we clashed with Caitrín’s soldiers, their speed and strength far outweighing that of an army of soulless savages that encroached with a slow patience that made them even more terrifying.
“Sloane, duck!”
I dropped down, having no idea what Aedan’s warning was about until I felt the wind rush past from the swing of a hefty poleaxe overhead. The man wielding it was huge and plated with a thick armor that would defy any of my hasty sword swings.
The moment I tumbled back to my feet, I was down again, avoiding each of the man’s barreling attacks that had me retreating with the distinct fear I could never beat him. Each time I rolled back to my feet, I repositioned myself, having only half a breath to take stock of precisely where I stood on what had become a massive battlefield.
Just as I found the forest at my back and the enemy at my front, I turned and ran. I heard the man’s pounding steps drifting behind, and felt the clip of his swinging weapon snagging on the back of my hanging straps of my pack. My hands tightened around the shoulder straps as I pushed myself harder than ever before. I’d be damned if he took the runes from me when I needed them the most.
The forest looked inviting as I careened into her shadow and took refuge among the thick trees that would impede the man’s wide swings. I turned to face him, our dance turning into an aggravating one as the length of his weapon caught upon low-lying branches and slammed into the tree’s massive trunks at each turn.
Rage filled his eyes as I ducked between trees, leading him on a wild goose chase that left me no time to make certain Aedan was still all right. Instead, my own life hung in the balance, and with every passing second, I knew my time was running out. I couldn’t flee forever.
From deep within the woods, limbs cracked and leaves crunched. Something was coming, and my attacker was too hellbent on killing me to have heard it at all. I angled around him, the trees still my shields as I ducked beneath another hefty throw that slammed so hard into the next trunk I swore the entire thing would upend and topple over.
Frustration and anger fueled the man’s next attack, but halfway toward me, his swing stopped. The thundering steps from the forest’s depths had reached us, and from that darkness, a beast sprung. There was barely time to recognize what it was, save for the shaggy fur and fiercely sharp teeth that tore through the man’s armor without pause. His screams were silenced in an instant, and I fled back toward the field.
“Aedan!” He stood within the thick of the battle, his limbs caked in blood thick as that which dripped from his sword. Felling the last of those who immediately opposed him, he turned in time to see the beast careen past me into the field that teemed with soldiers, and those that had been the resting dead.
The wiry creature with claws longer than the blade I held tore through flesh and bone with cries of agony and surprise that let me know none of them had expected this. None of them had expected creatures of the dark, creatures of hell, to kill without discrimination.
Swords and arrows jabbed into the beast, their inflicted wounds enough to fell even the strongest of men; yet it wasn�
�t enough to slow his taste for death. At least half still stood alive within the meadow as the creature rushed past and lunged over the city wall with ease. Screams immediately erupted beyond. I found myself unable to imagine the horrors that now lay out of our sight.
The massacre had only just begun as the forest continued to teem with creatures beyond imagination that stampeded from her shadows in an unimaginable sight. Though they resembled the elegant elk and once harmless squirrels, none could deny they’d been twisted into dark beings. Their fur was matted, and their limbs contorted into horrific sights that had them sinking their teeth into whatever flesh they could find. Far too many followed the massive beast toward the city, as if it were their leader.
“There are children in the city!” Aedan cried.
“Yes, there are.” The raven-haired daughter grinned at us with a wickedness I’d needed see to believe. “Darkness comes for us all.”
“Like hell, bitch.” I slammed down my pack, certain the runes would be our salvation. They had to be, or else the world would soon be run over by hell’s crawl. Something had cracked, though, and I dropped to my knees in a frantic pull to tear open my bag. I gave up patience and ripped the fabric clear open.
Sure enough, as my hands cradled the top rune, I realized it hadn’t survived. Straight through the center, a crack had spread like a bolt of lightning, splitting the stone in two and sealing us into our doom.
28
“No.” My head shook in denial as I slammed the two halves of the rune together to no avail. “No, no, no!”
The daughter’s voice rose into the air, cackling in victory. “I will not let you leave here alive. The darkness will spread. Soon, there will be no spot left untouched.”
There was no reason not to believe her, not as screams ripped throughout the city, signaling the beginning of the end.
It wouldn’t take the beast that had leapt the wall long to decimate entire families, let alone the entirety of the city. Yet, still there were more coming as the forest wept loudly in a crash of limbs and trees. From the shady depths, more beasts rose, their twisted natures making them barely recognizable.
One, an owl, swept across the sky, shaky in its flight with a wing of twisted proportions and a beak that curled into the narrowest point. Close behind, more birds lifted, their once-colorful feathers tinged with shadows that seemed to trail in their turbulent wake.
“My pet…” The daughter’s voice made my skin crawl. “Stop her. Stop your sister.”
I froze, still as the true dead itself.
Killion strode toward me, his eyes vacant and devoid of any of the vivacious life my brother once had.
“Killion, don’t. Please,” I begged, knowing my pleas would fall on deaf ears. He was no longer the brother I once loved, and never would he be again. He stalked closer. I heard Aedan’s blade again clash out, but I was blind to it, to all hell breaking loose around me, save for the vision of Killion drawing nearer and nearer.
I met him on my feet, my hands hanging unthreateningly at my sides.
“Killion, you’ve got to be in there, I know you have to—”
By the time I saw the knife in his grip, it was too late. The short blade sank deep into my shoulder, jabbing against bone and sending a shriek of a cry from my lips unlike any other. The pain was agonizing, but the hurt of the wound being inflicted by my own flesh and blood hurt even more. Worse so than the inflicted wound was the hope he’d ripped free of my heart in that moment.
I had to wake to the truth, to the fact that my brother was gone, and he was a beast as dark as our father. Everything I’d fought to save—had been lost.
I swung, my damaged arm useless, and my defenses futile as he yanked the blade free to attack again. I shoved at his chest, pushing him back hard enough and with enough surprise to topple him to the ground.
What I needed was a moment free, a moment with the runes, and there was no way I was about to kill my own brother, no matter how gone he already was.
My left arm swung listlessly at my side as I dropped to a crouch. Somehow, Aedan’s magic had turned water to air, and iron to copper, so who was to say I couldn’t do worse?
“Aedan, hang on!” I cried out as I shoved my focus to the air and grass at my feet and beckoned forth a change that would seal us in, and them, out. “Help me! Fire! We need fire to keep them back!”
I heard his blade again taste flesh, but then he was at my side, our hands pressing toward the ground in a sync I hoped wouldn’t knock the strength from him again.
Wisps of smoke licked at the air until flames burst forth, their cascading spread encircling Aedan and me, along with the runes. All around us the soulless savages had descended, including Killion, who swiped through the rising heat and recoiled with immediate howls of pain.
I wasn’t an idiot, though, not as I dropped back before the broken rune. This was our last hope, broken or not. Without it, we would surely die here.
“Your magic,” I begged Aedan. “Piece it back together.”
“I can’t, and even if I could… Breaking it could have destroyed the magic it held.”
Part of me wanted to cry, and I nearly thought I had when I felt a warmth trickling down the length of my arm. It was a river of my own blood that had traveled shoulder to fingertip and dripped straight onto the face of the broken rune.
A shockwave of energy pulsated outward from the rune, slamming me onto my back and leaving our hoop of flames to fight for survival. In a daze, I looked to Aedan, shell-shocked and suddenly hopeful that just maybe we had a shot. Maybe we could save those who remained.
His small nod was enough to urge me on as I took the next rune and slammed it upon the ground over and over until it, too, cracked. Again, a shockwave burst outward, our defensive flames flickering into the abyss of darkness that now wholly surrounded us. We were out of time, and there was no way to fight back the horde that wanted us dead.
“Keep going, Sloane!” Before me, Aedan jumped, his blade already claiming blood as it flickered to life with the same flame Darius had used in the deep of the forest. Aedan looked a true warrior, defending me at all costs and with an efficiency that would buy me a minute at most.
I dove back to the last rune, my bloodied hands already smearing it in crimson as I slammed it down with all my might. There was no time to see it split in two, not with the outward blast more powerful than the rest.
Dirt and grass lifted in a spiral that tossed bodies, toppled trees, and crumbled the tallest sections of the city beyond.
My head throbbed, and my limbs ached as I pulled myself on my stomach back toward the broken runes, except…they were gone. The halves I’d snapped had disappeared, and all that remained was a single stone of exceptional beauty. I cradled the smooth gem in my palms. It sparkled in a vibrant hue that was as yellow as the sun.
Dazed, I pushed to my feet, my left arm useless in its persistent agony. Across the meadow, others shuffled in the same upset, uncertain as to the power of what had just happened, and what was to come.
Except, I had no idea what to do with the stone that had burst forth from such power.
“It’s too late, Sloane!” Caitrín struggled as much as the rest to right herself, and though I knew not what drove me forward, I shakily stepped toward her.
“I’ll never stop trying!” I was, after all, nothing if not persistent and determined. Yet, those weren’t enough, not as my own brother’s hand wrapped around my ankle, yanking me back to the ground.
My head hit the earth hard, rattling my thoughts and hazing my vision for a moment as I stared at a sideways world where the raven-haired daughter stood, staring me down with eyes devoid of anything. More importantly, there, upon her neck, was a strand of silver that hooked into a curled nest devoid of its stone. It was hers…the stone in my hand belonged to her.
I thrust my legs hard, the sole of my boot colliding with the top of Killion’s skull in a shattering blow. There was no time to feel guilt or remorse, not as I dragged m
yself back to my feet and hurtled toward the woman who was somehow at the center of it all.
“Your name!” I called to her as I neared. “What is your name?”
For several seconds, her head merely tilted in confusion, as if such a memory could only be pulled from the furthest depths of her mind. “I don’t…Eshe. My name is—”
I reached her then, and thrust no weapon but the stone into the confines of her necklace’s wrap. The shockwave that came next tore no life from the ground, but persuaded my eyelids to slam shut against the vibrant flash of light that rocked across the sky.
My palm burned with the strength of a magic greater than any I’d ever felt, leaving me to let go just as Eshe fell into a silent, yet much more peaceful, heap upon the ground. I dared open my eyes, the meadow all around me littered with the soulless savages that would rise no longer. From the sky, shadowed creatures plummeted until the cries of the forest finally ceased. All that remained was a gentle breeze, and the warmth of a bright, sunny sky.
29
“Aedan?” Emotions beyond my control, or power, surged through me so thickly I couldn’t distinguish one from the next. Tears rolled down my cheeks in a silent bid. I felt no tightening of my throat, but only the wrap of his arms that pulled me into a tight embrace.
“You’ve done it.” His voice was soft and warm, and I wished I could have lived within it for forever. “You’ve saved us from the darkness.”
“Killion…”
He pulled away from me then, and with a hold upon my hand, took me to where my brother’s body lay. Finally, Killion looked peaceful, and I simply hoped he would remain that way this time.
“You were there when we cleansed his soul with…Caitrín. What did she really do?”
“I don’t know, Sloane, but he can rest now. All of them.”
I wanted to believe that he was right, that they could all rest for an eternity without interference, but I’d seen how easily hatred could spread and found it not within myself to believe at face value. It would take far more than banishing a mere curse to keep such a thing from resurfacing in the future.
